31
Dec
Alex was caught snuggling.
31
Dec
Granny and Pop are finally better! Today we got to spend the entire today with them. We opened some presents, ate some food, and played a lot of games. It was a pretty great day.
30
Dec
Family hike on this gorgeous day.
30
Dec
We were supposed to be spending the day with Granny Pop. They landed yesterday, but sent us a message that they weren’t feeling well and were going to go by the hotel. It turns out they really weren’t feeling well and they have been cooped up at their hotel yesterday and today. We are hoping they will be well enough tomorrow that we can see them.
Today is a gorgeous day so we gathered the troops for a visit to the Storybook Trail. (I would have voted for a longer hike if I had gotten my ducks in a row earlier.) We were having so much fun that Ben didn’t even realize we forgot the snacks till 3/4 of the way through!
29
Dec
After wearing shorts for two days, we finally realized Alex didn’t have any clean pants and required him to do his laundry.
28
Dec
Big boy sleepover. They had blowup beds but fell asleep on the couch instead.
27
Dec
We had our Christmas card pictures taken back in October. Wade was out of town, I bribed the kids with video games, and I was rather pleased with the how the pictures turned out!
27
Dec
Alex got this neck pillow in a white elephant gift exchange and it has made several appearances. I think he must really like it.
26
Dec
The entire family is enjoying our new game – Sushi Go
25
Dec
Christmas Morning!
24
Dec
We don’t have family in town this year for Christmas and we are embracing the slower pace. The day was still full of activities – basket presents:
cookie making:
Christmas Eve service:
cookie decorating:
and preparing for Santa:
24
Dec
Headed out to the Christmas Eve service.
23
Dec
We always choose one night around Christmas to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We end the night at Dunkin Donuts for donuts and hot chocolate. This year was a calamity of errors.
We were running low on free nights. We thought tonight was the night! Then we started seeing warnings for flash freezes so we hurried everyone to the car to get our drive in before the potential ice on the roads. Due to the high winds (that came with the earlier rain storm and coming freeze), a lot of the blow up decorations weren’t out, but there were still a ton of lights. When we got to the first Dunkin Donuts there were two donuts on the rack – something I have never seen. We drove to a second and found at least four varieties, but not our normal selection. We made our choices, enjoyed the hot chocolate and called it a night.
23
Dec
Basket Presents – Day 6
22
Dec
Basket Presents – Day 5
21
Dec
Basket Presents – Day 4
20
Dec
Basket presents – Day 3
19
Dec
Basket presents – Day 2
18
Dec
Today was the kids’ big day. We arrived early at church for everyone to find their costumes. Then we had one last pageant rehearsal. Thankfully the pageant is the same every year, but that doesn’t cut down on the chaos.
Then church began and the pageant went great. The kids were adorable and the congregation loved seeing everyone dressed up.
Wade and Alex topped it all off by performing with the bell choir.
18
Dec
Basket presents – Day 1
17
Dec
Introducing a narrator and what rehearsal for the Christmas pageant looked like at the church today.
17
Dec
In a rare turn of events, Alex joined us for a little TV tonight.
Our Saturday started early today with Kaitlyn’s first indoor soccer game. Her team won and she scored a goal. Her coach treated the girls to donuts and Kaitlyn begged to go before we rushed to church for Breakfast with Santa and the pageant rehearsal.
Kaitlyn changed in the car and we met the rest of the family at the church. There was breakfast, crafts, and a long wait. Then we were informed that Santa’s sleigh got damaged in the storm last night and he sadly would not be making an appearance this morning. The event broke up pretty quickly at that point and we moved upstairs to rehearse for the pageant. The kids already had their assignments so it moved fairly quickly. Wade was asked to be Harrod in hopes of encouraging the star (Ben) to remain in place.
15
Dec
Choir concert for the middle school!
15
Dec
The middle school choral concert was tonight. The dress code was the same as previous years – all black but touches of Christmas cheer were allowed. I tried to convince Alex to wear a Christmas tie and got a hard no. Wade was alone with him for 30 seconds and Alex came out dressed to the nines. (Yay for Wade.)
14
Dec
Alex decided to get creative with my leftover puff pastry scraps. He chopped, buttered, sugared, and cooked them. He also gave them an awesome name that I can’t quite remember. They weren’t bad..
13
Dec
Practicing situps for PE. Alex is full of complaints for this class, but he definitely is putting some effort into practicing.
12
Dec
We got snow! Of course Alex walked to school with no coat.
11
Dec
Tonight was the church handbell concert. Alex and Wade were performing so the other kids and I had plans to attend and watch at least a portion of the concert. We got there early so we could get prime kid seats (close to the door with room to play on the floor). Ben and Kaitlyn were easily amused by my bag of tricks. Alex and Wade did a great job. Ben loved going up front for the Jing Bells portion of the concert.
Then we did sneak out early due to the kids’ attention span and the falling snow.
11
Dec
Sunday lineup.
10
Dec
It has been months and months since Alex joined in on Saturday morning cartoons.
09
Dec
Alex came home from school saying he didn’t feel well and spent most of the night laying around moaning.
08
Dec
Unfortunately the only picture I got of this event was blurry, but it was such a cute memory. Wade was working late and didn’t join us for dinner. Alex decided to entertain us all and created a new game. He asked everybody to name two unrelated items. For the above picture Kaitlyn named a belt and a human. Alex would then find a way to link the items. In this instance he was proving that they could both be worn. Everyone at the table was thoroughly entertained throughout dinner.
07
Dec
Cookies coming right up.
06
Dec
Typical big brother behavior – at least at our house.
05
Dec
Evening video games for the boys.
05
Dec
Alex has PE this month and is not happy about it. He is grade on how many situps and pushups he can do in a set amount of time. It turns out Alex can’t do very many pushups so we have been working with him at home. Wade tried to show off a little with Ben and then remembered he wasn’t in his 20s anymore.
04
Dec
These two have worked all morning at the pancake breakfast and are quite ready for a break.
04
Dec
The entire family spent the morning at the elementary school working at the Waddles Winter Wonderland Pancake Breakfast, a community event sponsored by the PTG. Wade was a chef, I was at the entry collecting money, Alex helped out as needed, Teague was in charge of seating people, and the younger two ran wild. We had planned for 300 people and and had over 500 people attend, which is amazing. It also meant we had to make an emergency run for more pancake mix.
A local photographer, Deirdre Rakus, donated her time to take photographs of people attending the breakfast.
03
Dec
Alex didn’t get his laundry done in time and is forced to wear his last resort shirt – the neon green Fun Fair t-shirt from last spring.
02
Dec
After getting back from KY, we had to wait a few days to get our tree. First it was raining, then the boys had bells, then it was something else. Finally we got a tree and had a free evening to decorate! We put on some Christmas music, pulled out the ornaments, and I even convinced the kids to wear matching pajamas.
02
Dec
The tree is trimmed!
01
Dec
Alex and his friends have named Thursdays “Homie Hyper Freeze Thursdays.” They walk up to Cumbies and all get drinks for $1.
30
Nov
Family movie night
29
Nov
The boys alternate dishwasher/recycling days and over the years taking out the recycling has gotten a tad harder. Now they have to breakdown the boxes too, but they would still choose it over dishwasher.
28
Nov
Today he decides breakfast sounds good.
27
Nov
Alex couldn’t wait to get back to his computer. Evidently a week away was too long.
26
Nov
Paducah good-bye.
26
Nov
We spent the day in the car. Wade seems to have come to terms with our crazy travel ways. We did 12 hours today with a stop at Waffle House and then on to the hotel. We didn’t have a suite like on the front end so it was two hotel rooms (and it was kind of nice). Wade took the big kids and I got the littles.
25
Nov
Bingo!